Southern Poverty Law Center Refuses to Label Antifa a Hate Group

The Southern Poverty Law Center refuses to label the left-wing extremist organization antifa a hate group.

The SPLC’s “hate map” features groups and organizations that it classifies as hateful according to its own criteria. On this map, people can find the U.S. Border Patrol and the Family Research Council.

“If you are familiar with our work, we write about antifa often,” Cohen said Thursday in a testimony he gave to the House Homeland Security Committee. “We condemn their tactics — I’ve said so publicly and we do so always — but antifa is not a group that vilifies people on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion and the like.”

Pennsylvania Republican Scott Perry told the SPLC during Cohen’s testimony on domestic terrorism that the SPLC “reduces” their “credibility” by refusing to add antifa to their list of hate groups.

“So you’re OK with antifa as long as they don’t say things that you don’t agree with, but it’s OK if they hit people on the head with a bike lock or set things on fire or riot and flout the law by wearing face masks and incite riots — you’re OK with that?” Perry asked.

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Cohen responded by stating: “We condemn groups like antifa, we write about them often. We don’t list them as hate groups.”

When asked about why the SPLC doesn’t include groups such as the Students for Justice in Palestine who have reportedly advocated for violence against Jewish people on their list, Cohen responded with the following.

“I don’t know about that particular group,” he said. “We try to call hate as we see it. We limit our list not by left versus right but by groups that vilify others for factors such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or the like.”

Virginia Republican Rep. Thomas Garrett then pointed out that leaders of the SPLC almost exclusively donate to Democrats, prompting the possibility that liberal influence may seep its way into the SPLC’s decision making processes.

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“The liberal tradition is an inclusive one,” Cohen said. “Hate is the opposite of that liberal tradition of inclusivity. So it’s not surprising to me that people at the SPLC, people at other inclusive organizations tend to give money to liberal organizations. It seems obvious to me.”

Although Cohen and the SPLC have refused to label antifa as a hate group, there have been multiple examples of its members espousing extremely violent behavior and rhetoric.